The Playing for Change Band

continued

And now there's a Playing for Change live concert. It started with a few shows on the coasts and a big event at Britain's Glastonbury Festival, but now it's a full-fledged tour. The current Playing for Change Band includes the straw-hatted New Orleans musician Grandpa Elliott and the Surinamese-Dutch singer Clarence Bekker from the "Stand by Me" video, as well as musicians from other Playing for Change collaborations. Many of these songs are of African-American origin, which is one thing worth pondering when the Playing for Change Band comes to the Ark on November 2. Another is the necessity of the live show itself--nifty and new as the Internet phenomenon may be, sooner or later, as Neil Young says, it all gets real.   

[Originally published in October, 2009.]